Feb. 7, 2011

Hello dear family and friends. I hope this week has been good for
you! It's been a whole different ball game for me! As I mentioned
last week, I got transferred on Tuesday evening up to Colusa. Since
I've been here, I've learned a lot about the area. It's 1100 square
miles. It has two incorporated "cities", Williams and Colusa, and 9
much smaller towns. Colusa is bigger than Williams, and it has a
popluation of only 5600 people. It reminds me a lot of Salmon,
Idaho... only smaller. Most of the intersections don't even have stop
signs... :) Most of the people who live in the branch boundaries
either own Walnut and Rice farms, or they work for the people who own
the farms. So the income level of the people is either really high,
or really low. Most of the people are hispanic, and they attend the
Catholic church, or whatever Christian church is in the town nearest
where they live.

There have only been missionaries here in the branch for 3 months.
Before that it had been closed for misisonaries for almost a year. So
it's almost like we're opening the area again. The work here is
really slow. We are currently teaching one investigator. He's the 16
year old son of a less active. His name is Aaron. He wants to be
baptized, and we're going to help him with that for sure. But we also
want to make sure that he recognizes the importance of the step he's
making and that he really needs to attend church regularly, despite
the example that his parents are setting for him. I haven't been able
to teach him yet, because he didn't show up to our scheduled lesson
this week. He did come to church yesterday, though, which was
awesome!

We're doing a lot of tracting and member lessons, so we can gain the
trust of the members of the branch. I've met with the Branch
President twice so far, and shared with him some of my goals for the
work here in Colusa. I was pretty optomistic. He seems pretty
excited. We went to the Branch Council meeting yesterday, and
President Sorenson asked me to introduce myself to the council and
share the same goals with them that I shared with him during our first
meeting. It went really well. During sacrament meeting, later, he
had me stand up and introduced me to the whole branch. Then he said
that if anyone in the branch had friends or family members that were
ready for the gospel, that these sisters were the ones to handle it.
It was pretty cool that he already trusts me that quickly. The
sisters who have been here in the past have not been the most
diligent, I think. They've taken advantage of the fact that we're so
isolated up here, that they can get away with not working as hard as
they maybe could. I plan to change that. In 1100 sqare miles, there
HAS to be more than 1 person who's ready to have the gospel. I'm
going to find them! We're also going to meet every less active in the
ward and try to help them come back to church. In most of the less
active families there are at least one, if not two or three unbaptized
family members. In the last 4 days, we've found several new potential
investigators, and been able to set up appointments with several of
the less actives that no one in the branch seems to know much about.

It's going to be a long couple of weeks, filled with lots of tracting,
until we can get our teaching pool up, I think. But I'm up for the
challenge. Of course, I'll need all the prayers and faith you can
send me! And, now, more than ever, I'll really need all of you to
write to me. We're pretty far from everything, and it gets pretty
lonely out here. My companion is really shy, and not really
talkative, even when she's comfortable with the people she's with. So
please, I need to hear from you. I promise to be better at writing
back! I love all of you and miss you all like crazy!

Love, Sister Reid

PS. Kayti: Happy Birthday!! I promise to think about you all day on
Thursday!
PSS. I'll take some pictures around some of the towns I'm in this
week, and send them to you, so you can see what Colusa looks like.

Jan. 31, 2011

Hello friends and family!!! I hope that everyone is doing well this week. It's been a great week for us! We've had a lot of success with our investigators and they've made good progress. We've been able to set a solid date for baptism with Chris for the 12th. It's super exciting!!! He's really excited and so is Maleah, even though she won't be able to be baptized. He's moving ahead with the goal that he'll be able to have the priesthood when Maleah is actually able to be baptized, and he'll get to baptize her himself, which is AWESOME!!!

We've also made some really good progress with Kim and her kids. They're closer every day to committing to be baptized. And I love them so much.

Some really big news that I got today is that I'm being transferred!!! Tomorrow!!! Yikes!!! I didn't think it would happen this transfer because Sis. Christensen and I are doing so well here. But I trust that the Lord and President Pendleton know what's best for me, Sis. Christensen, and for our areas. So I'll go where he wants me to go... lol. I don't know much about the area becuase it's pretty far from here... about two hours north. I'll be serving in the Colusa Branch, near Williams California. The boundaries for the branch are several hours apart, because it's so sparsely populated. I'll be pretty isolated up there. :)My new companion's name is Sister Archer. I've met her once before, and she's pretty quiet and shy. She's been on her mission about 4 months longer than me.

For sure I'm going to miss this area. I got really attached to this ward, and I'll really miss them all so much! But I'm also excited for the new things that are coming. For the new people I'll be able to meet, and the new friends I'll make. It's going to be really good for me, I know it! And I'll for sure be back here when the McArthurs go through the temple in October. Which, speaking of, Brother McArthur was ordained to the Melchezidek Priesthood yesterday at Stake Conference!!! I know that they're going to be just fine without me!!!

That's pretty much it for this week. I kind of feel like the night before we left the MTC all over again... Lots of questions about Colusa, and my new companion, and the investigators there.... :) It'll be an exciting week, for sure!!!

I love you all so much, and I can't wait to tell you all about it next week! Be good, and be safe, and know that I love you and pray for you!

Love, Sister Reid

Jan. 24, 2011

Hello everyone! I hope that you're all doing really well! I for sure am. It's been a great week! Filled with the kinds of miracles that missionaries sometimes take advantage of, I think. :)

We started out kind of slow, with some canceled appointments, but we've also had some great success. We had Zone conference on Thursday, which really helped me to recharge and get the spiritual upliftment that I really needed. It's weird, but I used to get that from Church every week. Now, as I attend church with my investigators and less actives, I'm concentrating more on how they must feel and be recieving the lessons that are being taught. It's not so much for me now-a-days. But zone conference has filled that in for me. I sometimes wish it was more than once every three months, though. :) But it was really good! We had a good reminder that we're doing good work as a mission, because we had 463 baptisms in the year 2010 as a mission. That's so good! Way better than 2009. And we've set the goal as a mission to hit 500 in 2011. It's going to be a good year. I can tell. :)

I was warned before I left for my mission by some of my friends who have served missions, that life here is a crazy roller coaster sometimes. And even in the same day that I would have the most joy and also the most sorrow I've ever felt. I believe I finally found that to be true this week. On Friday, Sis. Christensen and I were preparing our lesson for Alisha about the word of wisdom. We were really concerned about it because we weren't really sure if she might be addicted to prescription pain medication. Plus she smokes, and loves her coffee. We were worried about how it might go. And we got really down, really fast. It was weird. But we worked through it, and then went to the lesson with Alisha -- praying that the spirit would really guide us to help her. We found out she's okay! She wants to quit smoking, which we're going to help her with, and she doesn't really care about not drinking alcohol. She's going to have a hard time giving up coffee though. And she said she wasn't sure she could really understand that the Word of Wisdom is a commandment, so we committed her to give it a try-- to test Heavenly Father -- and see if he wouldn't prove it to her by blessing her with more energy than she's had in a long time. She said she's willing to give it a shot! So we left there feeling much better about everything. :) It's crazy how fast your mood changes when you're on a mission.

We also experienced a bit of a miracle with one of our new investigators. Her name is Ofelia, and she was my very first Potential Investigator that I met on the very first street I tracted during my first week here. She had said then that she was interested, but to come back later. We were never able to find her again until a couple of weeks ago, when she invited us in and we taught her about the Book of Mormon. She's a mom of three. Hispanic, and Catholic. And she has the biggest heart, and she's very funny, and very interested in what we teach her. When we met with her, we invited her to come to church, but she couldn't make it because she has a job where she works all weekend. Her husband works during the week, and she's home with the kids, and the her husband is home on the weekends while she works. We were kind of bummed about that because it's hard to teach people about the sabbath day when they need the income that their jobs provide, and now is not a good time to be out of work. Most people we've taught are not willing to make the leap of faith that quitting your job requires... So we weren't sure how we were going to tackle that one... Well... we met with her agian on Saturday and she was so excited to tell us that she'd just been hired onto a new job that is Monday - Friday, and that pretty soon, she'll be able to quit the job that had her working on Sundays. It was amazing. She totally recognized it as a blessing from the Lord. It was one of those little miracles that show me over and over every day that the Lord is watching me and helping me in ways I can't even imagine. Just the day before I had told Sis. Christensen that I was tired of Investigators that were like 1000 piece puzzles, and couldn't the Lord just send us a 25 piecer... lol... Prayer answered, I guess. :)

Kim and her kids came to church again this week. That makes 3 weeks in a row for them. Also, Chris and his girlfriend came to church too. He met with the Bishop after church to talk to him about maybe getting baptized in Folsom. I'm sure that the Bishop was able to help him understand maybe a little better about why he needs to be baptized in the ward where he's living. We'll have an appointment with him this week, so that should be good. :) We did find out that he asked Maleah's mom if Maleah could be baptized, and the Mom said no. It's heartbreaking for him and for Maleah both, I'm sure. We're praying that she'll change her mind soon. We're going to move ahead with Chris's baptism, though, and then he'll be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood so that he can eventually baptize Maleah, when that is finally able to happen. So it's hard, but a good thing.

That's pretty much it for this week... we have transfers next monday, and for once, I have no idea what will happen. I still feel like I have work to do here with the investigators we're teaching, and that I'm not finished yet with Sis. Christensen, but I have been here for 7 1/2 months now, and that's a long time, even for sister missionaries (who don't get moved as often as elders). I'm sure that whatever happens will be the best for the area, the ward, the investigators, Sis. Christense, and for me.

I love all of you and I'm very excited to hear from you. !!!

Love, Sis. Ried

Jan. 18, 2011

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a great holiday weekend! Mine was no different from any other weekend since I've been here. LOL. I wouldn't have even known it was a holiday except that the library was closed. hahahaha.

This week has been a good one. We were able to meet with Kim and her family again, and they came to church on Sunday too. It was great. They're really excited about the church and the gospel. And I can't wait to keep teaching them. All the kids are amazing and very smart. We're trying to set a baptism date with them for February 12th, and we'll still keep working towards that goal. It would be awesome because that would mean that they get to be baptized on my birthday! That would be the best birthday present I could ever get!

Alisha also managed to come to church on Sunday, which was awesome! She was late though, and only made it to Relief Society. We'll keep working with her, and teaching her as often as possible to help her see the truth of what we're teaching.

Chris and his daughter won't be able to be baptized on Saturday, but only because he shares custody of Maleah with his ex-wife, and he doesn't have Maleah that weekend. So we rescheduled for the 5th of February, which works out because it gives us a little more time to teach them. :)

We started teaching a couple new people this week too. Ofelia is hispanic and catholic, but as we met with her, I could really feel her sincerity in searching for what Heavenly Father wants of her in her life, and His will for her. She gratefully took a Book of Mormon and committed to read 3 Nephi 11 and pray about it. We'll teach her about the Restoration on Friday. We've also started teaching a woman named Lena. She's an interesting case. She is very active in her Non-Denominational Christian church. Missionaries in this area have been trying to meet with her for several years, but she always puts them off. I know that she's been give some anti-mormon lit from some of her preachers in the past. As we've been able to teach her, she's told us that she simply wants to find out from us what the truth of what we believe is. At first, I believed she was more interested in making sure we were saved than in hearing what we had to teach, but as we've met with her, I believe that the spirit has taught her a little bit about the truth of our message, and she's softening her heart to us. It'll probably be a long road with her, and I probably won't be here to see the end of it, but I was here to start it! And that's cool.

This week I've had a lot of growth, I think. For the last seven months (that's right, I hit my seven month mark on Sunday! Can you believe it?) I've had the blessed opportunity to sit back and kind of ignore the real world. No job, no bills, no money, no news, no problems, really. It's been really nice. I almost forgot that real life was happening all around me. That kind of changed this week. "Real life" smacked me in the face. Several of our recent converts and investigators are going through some really hard things. I'd bet a lot of money that it has to do with their conversions -- refiner's fire and all of that. I had kind of been turning a blind eye to it, thinking that they were saved in the kingdom now, and I had done my part. But I've found out that that isn't so. My role as their spiritual guide doesn't end when they get baptized. I'm going to be part of these peoples lives for a long long long time, and I'm so happy about that. But at the same time, my heart has broken a little as I've watched some of the struggles that they face. And I've felt inadequate to help them or to know what to say. Feeling this anguish for them has really helped to me re-attach to the real world. It's helped me to recognize that life is still happening and that sorrow is real and still around. I've come to understand a tiny bit, what it must be like for the savior. He loves me, just as I love my investigators, and he watches me stumble with my trials and sorrows, just as I've been watching my friends go through theirs. My feelings couldn't possibly compare with those of the Savior's but I've come to see, in a small degree, what it feels like to wish that I could trade places with them, to spare them from the things that they have to go through, knowing that my testimony could withstand those things, while I'm sometimes not sure that theirs could. I've begun to understand the atonement a little better this week. And it's been hard. But worth it. I love Jesus Christ for standing in my place for me. Because he could stand it, and he knew that I couldn't. And that's the great message of the Gospel. And I love that I understand that better today than I did last week. Even though it's been - and will still be - a painful lesson to learn.

I love my mission, and I'm glad I'm here. I hope and pray that all of you are safe and healthy, and that you are always watchful of the things you say and do. Keep your testimonies safe... they can fail too easily. I love you all and I miss you a ton.

Love, Sister Reid